Added on July 21, 2010, 1:50 pmApart from rental, which I think you can find out easily, cost of living may vary depending on spending. I used to have cereal for breakfast, prepare my own lunches (sandwiches mostly) and take turns to cook dinner with my friends and it (food) can cost as low as £10/week to as high as £60/week or more. The reason for this is the varying ranges of quality that they offer for each product. Let me give you an example:
White Bread from Tesco:Tesco Value Medium Sliced White Bread (800g): 47p
Tesco Medium Sliced White Bread (800g): 74p
Tesco Organic Thick Slice White Bread (800g): 99p
Kingsmill Great Everyday Medium Sliced Soft White Bread (800g): £1.15
Tesco Finest Sliced Crusty White Farmhouse (800g): £1.19
Warburtons Medium Sliced White Bread (800g): £1.24
Kingsmill Gold Sliced Soft White Farmhouse (800g): £1.32
As you can see the highest range of white bread in Tesco is almost 4x more expensive than cheapest.
You'll also get a price range with other products. (For Tesco: tesco value<tesco ordinary<leading brand ordinary<tesco finest<leading brand higher range<leading brand organic etc.).
A single bus ticket costs £1.60 and an all day bus ticket with the Nottingham City Transport (NCT) would cost £3.20, which means you can take any NCT bus for that day. I would recommend buying the bus card from the university (which can be done in Portland Building or during Freshers Fayre) which saves money and the hassle of finding the correct change every time you wanna take the bus. Taxis usually use meters and are quite expensive if you're alone. But if there are 3-4 people, it can sometimes be cheaper to take the taxi.
A cinema ticket costs between £3.5 - £6 depending on the cinema you go to. A take-away meal (e.g. Cheeseburger with fries and coke) could cost £3.2. Fried rice from a chinese take-away would cost about the same.
The cheapest place to get clothes is Primark (apart from those sold in hypermarkets). Personally, I consider H&M clothes to be of good quality and at reasonable prices. If you'd like to find leading brands at bargain prices, go to T.K. Maxx. If you wanna get good clothes at discounted prices, wait for the Boxing Day Sale (26th December) which lasts for at least a week.
I would consider myself not too frugal nor too spendthrift (i.e. average) and I spend £150/month on everything apart from rental expenses. It would definitely be possible to spend less than that.
Note: Btw, try not to open a Lloyds TSB bank account because I think it's the most troublesome bank!